Imperial measurements are to make a return to the classroom amid fears that children are failing to learn about pints, pounds and miles, it has emerged.

The obvious solution would be to stop using imperial measurements altogether.

Altogether: The obvious solution would be to stop using imperial measurements.

I still use pints, miles, ounces (occasionally), but there really isn't any need. The only country that uses imperial measurements is America, and even then they're different from the U.K. (or some are, like pints).

The Irresponsible Captain:My automobile gets 53 leagues to the firkin, and that's how I like it. (That's 420 leagues per hogshead if you insist.) At least it does at a steady 20 leagues per hour on the paved cart path.

/It's trouble getting it inspected. No one can read the speedometer.

You get 9.3 MPG?

/actually enjoying looking up these historical units of measurement and finding out about their origins.

DeadGeek:The Irresponsible Captain: My automobile gets 53 leagues to the firkin, and that's how I like it. (That's 420 leagues per hogshead if you insist.) At least it does at a steady 20 leagues per hour on the paved cart path.

/It's trouble getting it inspected. No one can read the speedometer.

You get 9.3 MPG?

/actually enjoying looking up these historical units of measurement and finding out about their origins.

dj_blueshift:"Ministers said that a new curriculum 'goes further' than previous documents"

lol'd a bit

It's nice to see that England has their own political knuckle-draggers - "sure, the metric system is in use almost everywhere on the planet, but we fear change - make the kids learn the old system, too, damn it!"

Now, if we could just officially adopt the metric system here in the U.S. and get away from avoirdupois, I'd be happy. We're the only friggin' modern country on the planet that hasn't adopted it yet.

Fano:tb tibbles: harrydorcas: I am missing something. What is so devilish about taking measurements and using tools to do so?

The metric system arose out of the French revolution,not a good time for French Christians...so it carries with some the baggage of that era.

It's a shame we don't use metric units for time also.

If it wasn't for the length of a year, it wouldn't be hard. There is nothing that requires a 24/60/60 sequence. You could remeasure the 24 hour day as 10 hours, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 seconds to the minute; then 10 days to the week, and 10 weeks to the month. They are all arbitrary measures. But when you got to years it would run straight into a wall (not that the current system doesn't also, but the year happens to be where this particular sequence goes off the rails). Hell, if we ever do establish non-terrestrial colonies, such a system would be infinitely better than the kludge we currently have.

FormlessOne:Now, if we could just officially adopt the metric system here in the U.S. and get away from avoirdupois, I'd be happy. We're the only friggin' modern country on the planet that hasn't adopted it yet.

We tried.

I was taught in the 4th & 5th grades ( late 1970's) that we'd better learn metric because the US Government was going to "phase out" the old English system of measurements.

Obviously, that didn't go very far...

/ maybe the election in 1980 had something to do with that..// almost every technical job I've had uses only SI units...

The Irresponsible Captain:My automobile gets 53 leagues to the firkin, and that's how I like it. (That's 420 leagues per hogshead if you insist.) At least it does at a steady 20 leagues per hour on the paved cart path.

Tatterdemalian:Everybody knows why the Imperial system works better outside the research lab.

/problem is, the FARK libs think the entire natural world should be a clean, sterile, perfectly organized research lab//then throws amazing temper tantrums whenever anyone notices that it isn't

Thats really debatable. I find that a combination of both metric and imperial works the best for day to day life IMO. I like my fluids in liters and my short distance in feet my long distance in KM, and my measurements depend on what I am trying to build and what tools I have on hand. but screw the flexable approach, no one can rember more then one measurements system, thats just insane!

: My God, Joe is running us ragged!: Yeah, I haven't been this exhausted since I had that job as Jackée Harry's personal grocery shopper.[Cutaway to a grocery store with Peter and Jackée Harry. Peter is holding a clipboard with shopping items listed on it, which he is reading from]: A palette? Am-am I readin' this right? Y-You need a palette of chocolate-covered pretzels? Wh-wh-where the hell am i supposed to - a-an-an-and wh-what is this, a drum of grape jam? Is that - wh-what is that - is that like a drum like, they ship oil in? Is that - a-a-an-and wh-wh-wha - look at this one: A desk of Cheez-its. A desk - wh-where are you gettin' these units of measurements from?Jackée Harry: Mary.: [laughs] That is still funny. Okay you stay right here, big funny gal, i'll be right back with...[reads from the clipboard]: a hammock of cake.

Forbidden Doughnut:the US Government was going to "phase out" the old English system of measurements.

The US laissez-faire culture and even the first Amendment make it kind of diffcult for the government to phase out Imperial units. One major reason the rest of the world has adopted metric is their governments were able to force them. (Another major reason was that they didn't want to be like Americans.)

My tech job uses mostly Imperial. Then, because integrated disciplines are all the rage now, we've come up against other people who used only metric. They actually thought we were joking when we wrote an interface document in Fahrenheit.

phalamir:Fano: tb tibbles: harrydorcas: I am missing something. What is so devilish about taking measurements and using tools to do so?

The metric system arose out of the French revolution,not a good time for French Christians...so it carries with some the baggage of that era.

It's a shame we don't use metric units for time also.

If it wasn't for the length of a year, it wouldn't be hard. There is nothing that requires a 24/60/60 sequence. You could remeasure the 24 hour day as 10 hours, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 seconds to the minute; then 10 days to the week, and 10 weeks to the month. They are all arbitrary measures. But when you got to years it would run straight into a wall (not that the current system doesn't also, but the year happens to be where this particular sequence goes off the rails). Hell, if we ever do establish non-terrestrial colonies, such a system would be infinitely better than the kludge we currently have.

True, but the month throws things off as well. It gets complicated when you try to have a calendar that's both solar and lunar.

aerojockey:Forbidden Doughnut: the US Government was going to "phase out" the old English system of measurements.

The US laissez-faire culture and even the first Amendment make it kind of diffcult for the government to phase out Imperial units. One major reason the rest of the world has adopted metric is their governments were able to force them. (Another major reason was that they didn't want to be like Americans.)

Forbidden Doughnut: // almost every technical job I've had uses only SI units...

My tech job uses mostly Imperial. Then, because integrated disciplines are all the rage now, we've come up against other people who used only metric. They actually thought we were joking when we wrote an interface document in Fahrenheit.

My job works in diopters, so everything is metric. However, in daily experience, I will say that Fahrenheit approximates temperature in a way to me that never rings true in Celsius. I prefer kelvin to it, if I have to feel temperature in a clinical way.

Abacus9:phalamir: Fano: tb tibbles: harrydorcas: I am missing something. What is so devilish about taking measurements and using tools to do so?

The metric system arose out of the French revolution,not a good time for French Christians...so it carries with some the baggage of that era.

It's a shame we don't use metric units for time also.

If it wasn't for the length of a year, it wouldn't be hard. There is nothing that requires a 24/60/60 sequence. You could remeasure the 24 hour day as 10 hours, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 seconds to the minute; then 10 days to the week, and 10 weeks to the month. They are all arbitrary measures. But when you got to years it would run straight into a wall (not that the current system doesn't also, but the year happens to be where this particular sequence goes off the rails). Hell, if we ever do establish non-terrestrial colonies, such a system would be infinitely better than the kludge we currently have.

True, but the month throws things off as well. It gets complicated when you try to have a calendar that's both solar and lunar.

My point is given merit; metric time is difficult and hard to implement. You know, because it isn't how we experience time on this planet.

Fano:Abacus9: phalamir: Fano: tb tibbles: harrydorcas: I am missing something. What is so devilish about taking measurements and using tools to do so?

The metric system arose out of the French revolution,not a good time for French Christians...so it carries with some the baggage of that era.

It's a shame we don't use metric units for time also.

If it wasn't for the length of a year, it wouldn't be hard. There is nothing that requires a 24/60/60 sequence. You could remeasure the 24 hour day as 10 hours, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 seconds to the minute; then 10 days to the week, and 10 weeks to the month. They are all arbitrary measures. But when you got to years it would run straight into a wall (not that the current system doesn't also, but the year happens to be where this particular sequence goes off the rails). Hell, if we ever do establish non-terrestrial colonies, such a system would be infinitely better than the kludge we currently have.

True, but the month throws things off as well. It gets complicated when you try to have a calendar that's both solar and lunar.

My point is given merit; metric time is difficult and hard to implement. You know, because it isn't how we experience time on this planet.

how we "experience" time is really irrilivent to how we mesure it though.

how many aztec baktun's have you been through lately? the experience of time is largely dicated by the society you live in. a second is nothing more then an arbitray way to mesure part of a day night cycle on a planet that hasent even had a 24 hour day for its entire existance.

Fano:Abacus9: phalamir: Fano: tb tibbles: harrydorcas: I am missing something. What is so devilish about taking measurements and using tools to do so?

The metric system arose out of the French revolution,not a good time for French Christians...so it carries with some the baggage of that era.

It's a shame we don't use metric units for time also.

If it wasn't for the length of a year, it wouldn't be hard. There is nothing that requires a 24/60/60 sequence. You could remeasure the 24 hour day as 10 hours, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 seconds to the minute; then 10 days to the week, and 10 weeks to the month. They are all arbitrary measures. But when you got to years it would run straight into a wall (not that the current system doesn't also, but the year happens to be where this particular sequence goes off the rails). Hell, if we ever do establish non-terrestrial colonies, such a system would be infinitely better than the kludge we currently have.

True, but the month throws things off as well. It gets complicated when you try to have a calendar that's both solar and lunar.

My point is given merit; metric time is difficult and hard to implement. You know, because it isn't how we experience time on this planet.

The Irresponsible Captain:My automobile gets 53 leagues to the firkin, and that's how I like it. (That's 420 leagues per hogshead if you insist.) At least it does at a steady 20 leagues per hour on the paved cart path.

Fano:Well, that's two nonsensical responses as to why we don't have metric time so far...

Heres a better one for you. humans hate change and are willing to stick with a "good enough" solution to a problem as long as it works. Thats pretty much it .

I was more responding to your stilly statment about how we experience time. sicne the whole concept of time is a bit arbitray. not the mention the fact that the earth dident allways have a 24 hour day. that just happens to be what it roughly was/is when we decided to use it to mesure time.

not to mention the fact that an "hour" in that 24 hour day in it's self means nothing in relation to time. Its just the system our current society uses. What if the first guy to make a clock decided that it should be 10 hours in a day? Its all truely meaningless in that respect, and no one will change what allready works unless it is better or society crumbles and someone does something diffrent/new. after everyone forgets what used to work.